Development of Scale to Measure Objectives-Oriented Investment Behavior

Abstract

While planning for personal finances, researchers recommend investors adapting systematically planned investment behaviors that align investments with their financial objectives; however, they fail to provide a scale for the measurement of such behaviors. Therefore, this study develops a scale, conducts exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and provides evidence of the reliability of the scale measuring objectives-oriented investment behaviors. Examining a cross-sectional data of 448 investors collected through the new scale, the study finds that a majority of the investors’ do not follow objectives-oriented behavior. The results inform that the selection of investment avenues and allocation of funds were not aligned with investors’ financial objectives.     

An econometric analysis of the world zinc market

A fairly detailed market form of econometric model is built, based on the technological, behavioral and institutional features of the world zinc industry. An estimated version of the model indicates different systems of lag responses in the structures of demand and supply to the price of zinc, a very poor substitutability on the demand side, free market price as a long-run equilibrator for the U.S. producers' price, and an important influence of the U.S. interventions on the world market. The model meets reasonably well the predictability criterion based on the technique of dynamic simulation. The performance properties of the world zinc industry, analysed through dynamic multiplier simulation technique, show that the industry exhibits a reasonably, stable market environment to the exogenous disturbances such as an increase in the activity levels of consumers and variations in the prices of substitutes. It is, however, quite sensitive to technological changes in the consumer industries. The stockpile policy of the U.S. Government does not seem to be properly geared to its objectives and, in general, it seems to have restricted the development of the industry as a whole.     

Reconsidering the welfare cost of inflation in the US: a nonparametric estimation of the nonlinear long-run money-demand equation using projection pursuit regressions

This paper, first, estimates the appropriate, log–log or semi-log, linear long-run money-demand relationship capturing the behavior US money demand over the period of 1980:Q1–2010:Q4, using the standard linear cointegration procedures found in the literature, and the corresponding nonparametric version of the same based on projection pursuit regression (PPR) methods. We then, compare the resulting welfare costs of inflation obtained from the linear and nonlinear money-demand cointegrating equations. We make the following observations: (i) the appropriate money-demand relationship for the period of 1980:Q1–2010:Q4 is captured by a semi-log function; (ii) based on the estimation of semi-log cointegrating equations, the welfare cost of inflation was found to at the most lie between 0.0131 % of GDP and 0.2186 % of GDP for inflation rates between 0 and 10 %, and; (iii) in comparison, the welfare cost of inflation obtained from the semi-log non-linear long-run money-demand function, derived using the PPR method, for 0–10 % of inflation ranges between 0.4930 and 1.9468 % of GDP. However, the standard errors associated with the welfare cost estimates obtained from PPR relative to the linear models tend to indicate that the nonlinear money demand provides more precise estimates of the welfare costs primarily for higher rates of inflation.     

医保改革面临挑战

当前,许多国家仍存在医疗服务可得性差、医疗成本高昂、公共卫生支出效率低下等问题,医保改革面临重大挑战。医保改革目标存在两难—既要改善人们的健康状况,又要控制支出成本,因而提高公共卫生支出效率是改善社会健康状况的最优选择。各国政府的干预形式和公共卫生支出水平因国别、时间等的不同而变化。财政状况较好的新兴经济体需在保证财政可持续的前提下扩大基本医保覆盖面;发达经济体则应注重提升公共卫生支出的效率并限制支出增长速度。     

Exploring antecedents of healthy food choices: an Indian experience

Label information on food items is seen as a tool to facilitate better choices. Merely, provision of label information may not lead to the desired outcome. Comprehension and processing of label information during consumer decision making is crucial for better food choices. Based on the primary data obtained from 150 consumers of pre‐packaged food items, the research proposes a conceptual model for healthier food choices. Previously, a number studies related to consumer decision making have employed ‘label reading’ and ‘label use’ interchangeably. Present research advocates that label reading does not amount to label use. Findings from ordered probit model and path analysis suggest that comprehension of label information leads to increase in its perceived usefulness. Further, increased perceived usefulness facilitates better food choice. Instances of better food choices can be maximized by enhancing perceived usefulness and comprehension of label information through educational and awareness campaigns, especially in context of developing countries such as India.     

Behavior of output during currency crises

This paper documents the behavior of output and its association with other macroeconomic variables in 195 episodes of currency crises in developing countries during 1970-2000. We find that about 60% of the crises are contractionary, while the rest are expansionary. Crises are one and a half times more likely to be contractionary in emerging markets than in other developing economies. The number of contractionary crises or their severity does not increase in the 1990s. Economies which experience capital inflows in the years prior to the crisis or an increase in external debt burden during the crisis are more likely to slow down during crises, while those with restrictions on capital flows prior to the crisis or are more open to international trade are less likely to do so. The results are robust to different ways of measuring changes in output during crises.     

Joint probability distributions concerning a sequence of symmetric Bernoulli trials

Abstract

Two consecutive trials in a sequence of trials would yield one of the four patterns SS, SF, FF and FS, where S stands for success and F stands for failure. In the context of brand choice process under Bernoulli Model (Wierenga, 1974) SS and FF imply continuation with the same brand and SF and FS imply brand switching. Thus, a study of the probability distributions concerning these patterns assumes importance in the development and evaluation of marketing strategies towards the promotion of sales by the producer of a particular brand. Restricting ourselves to the case of Symmetric Bernoulli Trials (SBT), viz., the probability of success (and, therefore, of failure) at any trial is 1/2, we obtain in this paper, generating functions for the various tri-nomial distributions that arise by considering two of the four patterns mentioned above. We obtain these results by developing, at the first instance, the difference equations that connect the relevant probability functions (Uspensky, 1937, Bizley, 1957 and Feller, 1968). Some of the known results (Sabharwal, 1969), are obtained as a particular case of the new results.     

Structural interdependence within top management teams: A key moderator of upper echelons predictions

Studies of the effects of top management team (TMT) composition on organizational outcomes have yielded mixed and confusing results. A possible breakthrough resides in the reality that TMTs vary in how they are fundamentally structured. Some are structured such that members operate independently of each other, while others are set up such that roles are highly interdependent. We examine the potential for three facets of structural interdependence—horizontal, vertical, and reward interdependence—to resolve ambiguities regarding effects of TMT heterogeneity. Based on a sample of TMTs in technology firms, we find that the three facets of structural interdependence are potent moderators of two classic predictions: the positive association between TMT heterogeneity and member departures, and between TMT heterogeneity and firm performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender differences in evaluation of new business opportunity: A stereotype threat perspective

This study draws on stereotype threat theory to explore differences between men and women on evaluation of new business opportunities. Two controlled experiments, one with business students in Turkey and another with working professionals in the United States, were conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to specific experimental conditions and their assessment of a new business opportunity was measured after presentation of stereotypical information. As predicted, men reported higher opportunity evaluation than women when no gender stereotypical information was presented, whereas men and women evaluated the business opportunity equally favorably when entrepreneurs were described using gender-neutral attributes. Interestingly, gender differences in opportunity evaluation were exacerbated when entrepreneurship was linked to masculine stereotypical information, and reversed in favor of women when entrepreneurship was linked to feminine stereotypical information. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Capital Inflows and House Prices: Aggregate and Regional Evidence from China

Rising house prices in China have been of concern for investors and policymakers. Prices have risen substantially in the last decade, especially in large urban cities, and some economists have expressed concerns about the affordability of residential housing for young adults. This phenomenon becomes a major concern for policymakers, in terms of managing policies to balance the residential needs of individuals and the transition to a market economy. Theoretically, house prices ought to be linked to economic factors such as disposable income, availability of land to build and credit policy. However, it appears that traditional economic theories fail to appropriately explain house prices in China. We provide an explanation from the perspective of capital inflows into China. In terms of per capita remittances, China receives the highest inflow of foreign capital, and this may have a significant impact on risk adjusted returns in the Chinese market. To investigate this relationship, we use the vector error correction model to assess the impact of capital inflows on house prices. We find that capital inflows have a significant positive effect on house prices. The study makes important contributions to understanding the relationship between house prices and foreign remittances after controlling for other economic factors. China is a large economy. Because the impact of economic development in China has not been consistent across the country, we address the regional differences in the house price changes to capital inflows. Using regional data, we show that capital inflows have an asymmetric effect on the housing market across different provinces and cities of China. This has important implications for the development of economic policies in China that aim to provide fair access to residential housing for everyone. These findings are also relevant to investors in the housing market, whether investing for a personal residential home or as part of their diversified investment portfolio. It will also be informative to see how a reversal of capital inflows associated with tighter financing conditions in advanced countries will affect house prices in China.